Kent v. United States

In 1966, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) conducted a survey of juvenile and adult facilities, as well as aspects of juvenile probation and aftercare. From this pivotal study emerged, eight years later, elements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974.

At the time the NCCD conducted its survey, only seven percent of the nation's juvenile court jurisdictions possessed juvenile facilities. Within the existing facilities, the study found overcrowding and abusive conditions. A number of other concerns emerged over the course of the survey, and at its completion the NCCD made several recommendations for "a revised philosophy of the juvenile court," as well as for the correctional system and other aspects of juvenile justice.

Congress in 1974 built four of the NCCD's specific recommendations into the JJDP. A quarter of a century later, most U.S. states and territories were in compliance with these four: deinstitutionalization of status offenders (54 states and territories in full compliance); separation of juveniles from adults in confinement (53 states and territories); jail and lockup removal (53 states and territories); and reduction in the disproportionate confinement of minorities (28 states are nearing full compliance, and others are at various stages.)